Bump

Thanks man! Was nice to have a winner before i set off, although haven't had much luck i nthe very small session i played since being here

didn't even see it...

haha, this +1

Show your 2015 ptr curve for the boys tim. I might dl and bust mine out and see what it's saying. I'm just scared af that it says i ran average, or even worse, good... That would be the end for me haha

lmao very good guys

missing me? i'm here, dw, update incoming

Rgds from Mehicooo. So i'm currently sat in my hostel in Oaxaca.

So I flew into Mexico City and headed to my hotel and crashed hard.

Day 2 I woke up early and headed to to Puebla City; South of Mex City and a popular starting point for most travellers who are on their way South to Oaxaca. The journey was pretty beautiful with great views. Unfortunately it was gloomy af (it's rainy season for another two weeks (classic leaving UK to 'avoid the Winter' and it's raining haha). It is still mid 20's most days though with occasional showers, so no real complaints.

I then spent the next 2 days there and got a chance to sample plenty of traditional Mexican street food. A few people messaged me on IG saying how unhygienic the carts looked haha. And while that's likely true, ironically the street food is the best/safest food compared to the majority of restaurants (according to trip adviser/lonely planet and other travellers). These stalls constantly have crazy long queues full of locals and tourists alike. I met a group of Austrians; two guys and a girl who were super friendly. They were playing a card game called Wizard, so naturally i had to get involved. I found some heat to win, wasting my run good, fml. We then spent the night/next day together before they headed off to Oaxaca (the same hostel that i had booked - we're currently all in the same place).

Here are some pics just from Puebla - mainly street art as it's pretty magnificent











This photo was of the Tuneles de Puebla - an underground tunnel system that was only discovered two years ago. It's still unknown when or why they were built but estimated but ~1810



And my new Mexican chica and favourite street food chef!



Current 'Tortilla Tally' is at 15 for the trip...

I've been in Oaxaca for one night so far and will be here for at least one more night before taking a flight to the coast. I'm gunna update the blog every time i move to a new location as it feels manageable/a nice way to close off each mini trip.

aaand last but not least, the only poker session i've played since arriving. Needless to say, it did not go well To be fair though, i've been having so much fun/meeting people that poker has taken a bit of a back seat. I guess that was inevitable. I've got some sims that i ran a few days ago that i'll try study when i have some more down time.



Heading out for some dinner now and will see what tomorrow has to offer!

only discovered two years ago? damn!

Nice update (bar the loss ofc). I flew into Asia right as England started its massive summer heatwave so I know the pain there. Street food is the best too, just gotta be on your toes.

How long are you away for and where are you planning to get to?

Damn that food looks good!!

This is gonna be good. Post lots!

Have you tried to reinstall stars to reset the doomswitch? Lol

Btw, in third world countries it's a good idea to not take your cell phone out in the streets, if you wanna use it get in some shop and take it out of your pocket thete. Treat close to anyone suspicious as a potential bandit and keep distance from them!

Even for people that were born in there it's hard to avoid getting stolen, so it must be really hard for people in developed countries to do that. A good idea is to have a busto phone so you can use while walking in the streets. That **** is so abysmal that here in.brazil we have a word that means "when lots of bandits join to steal together"(lol), they go in groups of 20+ and start stealing as much as they can, happens fairly often in rio in the most famous beaches.

#southamericaproblems

ikr, seems crazy to me that they were unknown for such a long time!

yep totally agreed. just trying to go to food stands that have men, women, children etc. The locals hopefully only eating the safer options.

I'm away now until early december, but will be heading to australia in january and then South East Asia sometime after that.

yeah man, it's all SO GOOD

Will do man! Will be leaving Oaxaca City tomorrow and will do another write up soon.

I hear what you're saying, but from what i can tell, Mexico is no where near as unsafe as people make out. Of course, if you're not sensible then you can easily be targeted, but for the most part it feels pretty safe. Thanks for the hu in case i find myself in Brazil though haha

this.

---

Just a poker update today because i just grinded another unreal 500z pool. Mexican time zone is the nuts for stars. However, yet again, i literally lost every single pot. Really really ****ing rough. Getting closer and closer to evens for the year too, fml.



maybe this is a fold but this reg is suuuuuper active. The only issue is the frequency at which turn bluffs contain the Kc. That said, he could be wider. Obviously folding to a shove. The more i think about it, the more i think the call is a mistake. bleh

PokerStars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $2.50/$5.00 - 5 players
Hand delivered by Upswing Poker

UTG: $754.13 (151 bb)
CO: $789.79 (158 bb)
BU: $500.00 (100 bb)
SB: $502.50 (101 bb)
BB (Hero): $531.10 (106 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($7.50) Hero is BB with Q♣ 7♣
3 players fold, SB raises to $15, Hero calls $10

Flop: ($30) T♥ 4♣ 9♣ (2 players)
SB bets $10, Hero calls $10

Turn: ($50) A♣ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $38.13, SB raises to $133.43, Hero calls $95.30

River: ($316.86) J♣ (2 players)
SB bets $103.57, Hero calls $103.57

Total pot: $524 (Rake: $3)

Showdown:
SB shows K♣ 8♠ (a flush, Ace high - higher flush)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 61%, Flop: 53%, Turn: 16%, River: 100%)

BB (Hero) mucks Q♣ 7♣ (a flush, Ace high)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 39%, Flop: 47%, Turn: 84%, River: 0%)

SB wins $521

Bluff vs reg. He literally SNAPPED the river. Wtf are his river folds if he doesn't fold this? Guess 6c is fairly relevant. Again though, maybe my bluff is too ambitious. Thoughts?

PokerStars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $2.50/$5.00 - 4 players
Hand delivered by Upswing Poker

UTG: $1,112.62 (223 bb)
BU: $557.37 (111 bb)
SB (Hero): $505.00 (101 bb)
BB: $1,716.75 (343 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($7.50) Hero is SB with J♠ Q♣
2 players fold, Hero raises to $15, BB calls $10

Flop: ($30) T♥ 9♣ A♣ (2 players)
Hero bets $9.40, BB calls $9.40

Turn: ($48.80) 9♦ (2 players)
Hero bets $35.48, BB calls $35.48

River: ($119.76) J♣ (2 players)
Hero bets $133.26, BB calls $133.26

Total pot: $386.28 (Rake: $1.50)

Showdown:
SB (Hero) shows J♠ Q♣ (two pair, Jacks and Nines)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 45%, Flop: 36%, Turn: 18%, River: 0%)

BB shows 6♣ A♥ (two pair, Aces and Nines)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 55%, Flop: 64%, Turn: 82%, River: 100%)

BB wins $384.78

lmao, totally and utterly destroyed by reg who finds the 0% 3b but managed to win entire stack from me. Figured this combo was a turn mix - sizing could prob be 40%.

PokerStars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $1/$2 - 6 players
Hand delivered by Upswing Poker

UTG: $277.08 (139 bb)
MP: $241.65 (121 bb)
CO: $223.83 (112 bb)
BU (Hero): $202.20 (101 bb)
SB: $382.49 (191 bb)
BB: $245.65 (123 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($3) Hero is BTN with Q♥ 9♥
3 players fold, Hero raises to $4.10, 1 fold, BB 3-bets to $20, Hero calls $15.90

Flop: ($41) 7♥ 3♦ 5♥ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $12.85, BB calls $12.85

Turn: ($66.70) T♣ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $38.37, BB calls $38.37

River: ($143.44) 4♣ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $130.98 (all-in), BB calls $130.98

Total pot: $405.40 (Rake: $2.75)

Showdown:
BU (Hero) shows Q♥ 9♥ (high card, Queen)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 70%, Flop: 46%, Turn: 27%, River: 0%)

BB shows 9♦ 5♦ (a pair of Fives)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 30%, Flop: 54%, Turn: 73%, River: 100%)

BB wins $402.65

Onwards on my journey tomrrow and will update in the next couple days with the activities over the past few days. Any feedback on the hands above would be appreciated.

glgl

How could your bluff be ambitious in that JQo hand when that river close to all your bluffs get there? Which better hands do you have there as a bluff?I think even if you bluffed with all JQ combos you would still be heavily underbluffing in that spot. The only reason for him to call would be if he thought you were valuebetting smaller and bluffing with a bigger sizing(which is a really common line by nits in the small stakes because they don't think their valuebets will get called). Otr I think it's good to have a 33% sizing with most of your range and a small amount of overbets given how easy it is for you to underbluff there.

His call is very bad imo, unless if he made it because of that explo approach, but he probably does that **** himself lol, so you can call him light vs b b overbet in the future

my 200z on soft site thoughts:

h1 seems like value raise on river no? or is he that unbalanced?

h2 i think might play better as xraise he should have some 10x u can beat? i think bluffing pairs with a club might be better

h3 can't we find better combos on river?

gl enjoying the trip updates

--------------

H1 valueraising the river with Q high flush is disaster against anyone but total fish. I'm pretty sure xR turn is in theory towards flushes and Kx flush blockers and I'm not seeing so many reasons to deviate from there. Maybe some 44 is there to not be that capped on paired boards and to create bluffs for rivers that hit the flush making BB indifferent against this size with the medium flushes which he has plenty. I'm doubting solver likes turning small flushes to bluff there but maybe its a thing (not sure how much they raise turn but probably low freq).


2) I don't think his call is bad don't need to be rocket scientist to know that people can turn the jack to bluff and he has blocker to flushes so he calls.


3) solid bluff & whatever spew play by the guy


just few thoughts,safe travels and see you at the tables .

i dont think sb is meant to xr turn in theory but if he does i guess he would choose hands that make it bad to value raise Qs there

Sb surely wants to have xR range in turn getting max value with nut flushes

Bump!

rip

I guess the river bluff should be making money, however upon review, i definitely feel Jx combos have too much showdown to bluff, at least at 100% frequency.

As for my river sizing, I don't think i need/want multiple sizes - i'm obviously pretty polor here. I'm actually gunna sim this hand now that i have a bit of downtime.

Cheers for you thoughts as always rap!

h1: I suspect that villain's turn bluffing range has the Kc very frequently (regardless of whether or not the solution contains Kc. i imagine it mixes Kc ott a lot). This would likely make a river raise heavily losing.

h2: Agree with this sentiment

h3: I think we wanna be betting most of out non nfd's a LOT ott. BB/200z populations x/c flop range, particularly this villain, is very imbalanced imo.

Thanks for your thoughts man! I agree with some and not so much with others, but i guess this is where different strategies have varying opinions and counter strategies.

Cheers! I'm having a blast so far. glgl

yep, this

<3

This 'rip' is oozing with joy see you next week!

Oaxaca City

wow, hey, hi!

So I had a really fun 3 days in Oaxaca City. The journey through the mountains offered some more incredible views. Unfortunately the weather was bad and it was very bumpy so i didn't manage to get any good photos.

The Austrians that I met in Puebla were also in the next hostel - Azul Cielo. The great thing about the place was that they ran classes each day; yoga, mindfulness, cooking, salsa dancing etc. The evening i arrived, we all attended the salsa class. With a Mexican instructor who spoke close to no English, along with 7-8 locals, I'm proud to say that my salsa skills went from a 0/100 to a strong ~4/100 haha. After the class, the now group of 6-7 (American and Swiss guys), got invited to a local salsa bar. We danced with locals, had drinks and ate some Mexican sweets.

I'm struck by the disparity between the assumptions of the dangers of Mexico (namely by those who have never visited the country), and the genuine, caring and passionate nature of pretty much every Mexican person i have met. Of course lolsamplesize, but I haven't met one single traveller, even those who have been here for months or even years, who have a worrying story to tell.

Anyway, those are a few of my thoughts about the time i've spent here so far. Other than the above, I've continued to sightsee, spent time in bars, markets and picking up some new card games. Here are some photos.

The hostel garden



My grind setup (shame i lost every hand )



An array of chilies in one of the many markets



Monte Alban Ruins





I'm now on the coast. The weather is out of control and the lifestyle is nothing short of a dream. But i'll save that for the next update.

Internet is too bad here to grind - a delightful excuse not to play

Tenga un buen día!

Is it not distracting playing in hostel common areas? Can't imagine it being easy to concentrate.

Why are you betting with that sizing only OTR? Are you so confident you have enough bluffs in range to give your opponent a breakeven call with bluffcatchers for that sizing?

I think that otr most humans will have a range that is very different from pio,since there are lots of checking going on otf/ott that it does that humans won't do, specially with nutted hands/draws, as well as the lack of bluffing OTT with garbage hands/0 equity hands, making humans end up with less bluffis on rivers the draws get there and more potential bluffs on bricks.

Balancing 2 sizes on that river is also not that hard, for value you can go bigger with AA/A9/J9/bigger flushes(targetting trips+), in the small sizing you can go with AT+, 99, TT, small flushes for value, straights(targeting Ax), as bluffs you can put JxQx in the bigger sizing and 76s in the small sizing, with J8/JK you just divide them, always putting FD blockers on the big sizing.

the dream

Enough with teh SA nonsense now time to get ur ass over to SEA...

#****backpacking

Was thinking the same haha

And why stay in hostels for 10usd/night when you grind 500z lol?

Always nice to see your IG updates, best of luck.